Kilt II

The latest mixtape from Bay Area rapper Iamsu! doubles down on all of his strongest and most likeable qualities: Largely self-produced, high-energy, and creative, it shows Sudan Williams continuing to transform into a burgeoning star.

Iamsu! is Sudan Williams, a producer and rapper from Richmond, Cal.,who has condensed his birth name, comic-book-lettering style, for maximal impact and congeniality. His music has a similarly blinding elevator pitch quality: In just a few short years, the 23-year-old has assembled a formidable catalog of colorful, catchy, and impressive mixtapes. His latest, Kilt 2, doubles down on all of his strongest and most likeable qualities: Largely self-produced, high-energy, and creative, it shows Iamsu! continuing to transform from a promising, agreeable Bay Area rap figure into a burgeoning star.

On Kilt 2, Su positions himself as an enterprising, funny young trend synthesizer, working hard to summarize the rowdy sprawl of his city's rap music riches and prep them for cross-country consumption. There are pieces of nearly every current Bay Area rap style floating through Kilt; DJ Mustard's infectiously bright and simple ratchet sound; hyphy, as the sound has come to be defined by E-40 over the past decade ("On Citas," which brings Mistah F.A.B. and gravel-voiced Keak Da Sneak for good measure); the mournful, soul-inflected mob music of Husalah, Joe Blow, the Jacka and others in the Livewire/AR/Mob Figaz axis. "The Science", which overflows with wooly saxophone, talkbox, jazz flute, and grand piano, is a rich DJ Quik homage. It sounds like an Easter Egg hunt meant only for Bay Area rap nerd-aficionados, but Su neatly corrals all of this context, shuffles it, and spits it out, stamped with earnest, clever, likeable raps.

You could call it Su's College Dropout impulse; he probably wouldn't mind. "Found bravery in my bravado/ Trying to live up to that rapper from Chicago," he raps on "The Science". On "Best Thing Yet", he spells it out even more clearly: "Bumpin The College Dropout, tryin' to rhyme like him," he says. Su has a few Westian qualities-- his ability, for one to treat the story of his rap career as an epic hero's journey, with or without the autobiographical nitty-gritty to sell it. "I recognize the uncertainty of a career in music, but I still handle it perfectly, " Su says on "Citas", and boasts on "Father God" that "I could go my whole lifetime without your cosign." The quality he shares most with West, though, is his burning, evident desire to reach all demographics; on the feather-light "Hipster Girls", Su raps about Instagram likes and Tumblr posts, somehow without losing everyone in the room. "Float" and "Let Go" are pillowy, dazed love jams that gently bump pool rafts with Wiz Khalifa.

The production, when not handled directly by Su, comes from other members of his Invasion crew, a rotating cast of producers that have distinct specialties: P-Lo sources the spare, darker beats; the pinwheeling, airy numbers come from Kuya Beats. Iamsu!'s own production, however, is the most ambitious and musical-- his beat for "On Citas" melts, halfway through, into a second section of breathy female vocals and diaphanous keys. Even when it's dark and menacing, like "Father God", there is a nimble snap to Su's music. His reedy, modest voice makes him sound like a cousin to Khalifa, but his rapping is deceptively complicated, stepping nimbly in and out of double and triple time and running light, high-stepping circles around the beat. He's not quite charismatic enough yet to match his outsized ambitions, but Kilt 2 is another solid step up his ladder.